Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in {That is, The heart of them that rise up against me.}Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.
And I will send unto Babylon {Or, winnowers}strangers, that shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
{Or, as otherwise read, Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not lift}Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare ye not her young men; {Hebrew: devote ye all &c.}destroy ye utterly all her host.
And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.
For Israel is not {Or, widowed}forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense.
Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
Make {Or, bright}sharp the arrows; {Hebrew: fill.}hold firm the {Or, suits of armor}shields: Jehovah hath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.
Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both purposed and done that which he spake concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy {Or, dishonest gain}covetousness.
Jehovah of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, {Or, Though I have filled}Surely I will fill thee with men, as with the canker-worm; {Or, yet}and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens.
When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries.
Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.
Thou art my {Or, maul}battle-axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
and with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces {Or, lieutenants}governors and deputies.
And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith Jehovah.
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith Jehovah.
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, {Hebrew: sanctify.}prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm.
{Hebrew: sanctify.}Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the land of their dominion.
And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might hath failed; they are become as women: her dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken.
One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:
and the {Or, fords}passages are seized, and the {Or, marshes}reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured {Another reading is, us.}me, he hath crushed {Another reading is, us.}me, he hath made {Another reading is, us.}me an empty vessel, he hath, like a monster, swallowed {Another reading is, us.}me up, he hath filled his maw with my delicacies; he hath cast {Another reading is, us.}me out.
{Hebrew: My wrong and my flesh.}The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the {Hebrew: inhabitress.}inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' whelps.
When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith Jehovah.
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become {Or, an astonishment}a desolation among the nations!
The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the {Or, tumult}multitude of the waves thereof.
Her cities are become {Or, an astonishment}a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
And I will {Hebrew: visit upon.}execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah.
And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye for the tidings that shall be heard in the land; for tidings shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come tidings, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her from the north, saith Jehovah.
{Or, Both Babylon is to fall, O ye slain of Israel, and at &c.}As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the {Or, earth}land.
Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's house.
Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will execute judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come unto her, saith Jehovah.
The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
For Jehovah layeth Babylon waste, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:
for the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.
And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: {Or, the walls of broad Babylon}The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly {Or, made bare}overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.
The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was {Or, quartermaster}chief chamberlain.
And Jeremiah wrote in {Or, one book}a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, {Or, and shalt see, and read…then shalt thou say &c.}then see that thou read all these words,
and say, O Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates:
and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Querverweise zu Jeremia 51,20 Jer 51,20
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will {Hebrew: devote.}utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
{Or, Woe to Asshur}Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation!
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that wieldeth it? as if a rod should wield them that lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up him that is not wood.
I have made the earth, the men and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it unto whom it seemeth right unto me.
And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him.
And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondman.
They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers;
{Or, he that smote…is persecuted, and none hindereth}that smote the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
Hast thou not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be thine to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
Behold, I have made thee to be a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain unto {[Chapter 4:14 in Hebrew.]}Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O {Hebrew: Javan.}Greece, and will make thee as the sword of a mighty man.
And Jehovah shall be seen over them; and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south.
But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.